Remarkable Results Radio Podcast May 29, 2026

When Personal Stress Walks Into the Shop: How Leaders Protect Performance [THA 487]

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Car

Chevrolet Trax

The Chevrolet Trax is a small SUV made for regular daily driving. It’s meant to be easy to park and drive while still giving you more space than a typical sedan. People talk about it because it’s a practical option for things like commuting and running errands.

Term

transmission

A transmission is the part of the car that helps the engine deliver power to the wheels. If someone says they replaced the transmission, it means that big gear unit wasn’t working right anymore.

Concept

roll call

“Roll call” is a way of describing a simple daily habit of checking in on people. The point is to make sure coworkers notice when someone is hurting or needs attention.

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This is the Automotive Repair podcast network.

Hey, everybody,

Karm Capriotto, remarkable results radio.

Glad to have you here our 11th year.

We couldn't do this if it wasn't for you.

So I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Look, we have to thank all those great people that have been

on over a couple of thousand episodes between

all the different shows that we've done to share

their insights to help advance our great industry.

We're going to talk about an outside influence on

the sales ability, not only of yourself,

if you're a service advisor, client advocate,

but as an owner, what do you got to do to help influence

the sales ability of your people?

When I come back, it'll be Rina Renabomb, Rachel Spencer,

joining me.

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Hey, welcome back.

Look, I want to remind everyone about our app,

and I think it's critical that we talk about it,

and we have a really cool, neat new URL,

arpn.app, from the Automotive Repair Podcast Network.

All the shows are there.

You can save them, and it's the ultimate playlist.

Save your favorites, and share them with people

you can even watch the video there.

So I'm thrilled to be able to provide that for you.

So let's get down to business.

Rena, Rena Reddabomb, coach consultant,

empowered advisor, at empoweryouradvisor.com.

Empoweryouradvisor.com.

Rena, I went back and I counted

about maybe 15, 16 episodes that you and I have been on.

I pick up the phone and says,

hey, I got this wild idea.

What do you think?

She goes, let's do it.

And you've been on a lot of panels town hall,

so we appreciate your influence.

And Rachel Spencer from Spencer's Auto Repair in Crumb, Texas.

And she is now a coach with Rena,

at empowered advisors.

How cool is that?

One of the things that we did a while back,

I wanna share with the audience,

it was aftermarket weekly,

it was one of the shows that we did,

I don't know, for maybe a couple hundred shows

aftermarket weekly.

It was the racialisms, and I thought that was so cool.

When we did that, you found an awful lot about Rachel.

And then we did, which I have to say,

we should do more of soft skills episodes.

We did one, it was Town Hall Academy 398, you were on that.

And I was recently speaking to an educator

out at the high school level, no, at the college level,

and we were talking about soft skills.

And you know what he told me?

Again, one of these language shifts

that Karma's working heavily on,

he says, Karma, they're not soft skills anymore.

I says, what are they Todd?

It was Todd Fortier.

He says, they're necessary skills

that really hit me hard over the head.

Just think about it while you're trying to come up with

all the, we got lists of soft skills.

But anyway, we had an episode with Rachel,

which was so cool too, called,

is your bathroom like the Ritz Carlton?

You remember that one?

Yeah, that was a good one.

That was a good one.

And every time I talk to people,

it says, how's your bathroom, Rachel wants to know?

So look, let's jump in this thing.

We have so many KPIs on our salespeople.

We're looking at their phone,

we're listening to their phone calls.

We've got AI that's assessing all this stuff, OMG.

And did you ever stop and think that maybe

there's something going on that makes that individual

not up to top performance?

Who wants to start and give us your insight?

When my mindset shifted,

and what I mean is is my mindset has always been

that you need to leave your problems at the door.

And I still believe that.

I still believe that you shouldn't bring your problems

to work and make them everybody's problem.

I believe that.

But I also know that we are human

and it is for a lot of people,

I'll say close to impossible to completely separate themselves

from if they're having a problem,

either with something at work, something at home,

or just outside of work, we'll say.

Patrick Lynchione is the one that I heard

on one of his podcasts and he said,

for those employers that believe

that only part of the employee comes to work,

you're out of your mind.

The entire person comes to work.

The person that is having marital problems

that has a sick family member,

that entire person comes to work.

And to me, it was like, wow,

it shifted my mindset that we need to realize

that we can leave it at the door,

a lot of people are good at it,

but no matter what, that person is still at the shop.

When I was growing up in life and in business,

there was this thing separation of church and state,

you leave your problems at home.

Listen, we've got enough of them here.

We just can't deal with your blank,

we just can't deal with it.

And it is so different today.

When you think of the goings on that we see,

I mean, all you have to do is,

I don't even wanna say don't even look at social media,

just look at what TV shows and the movies

and what's going on in the news.

There's so much strife and conflict going on

and a lot of it does come home.

And we've got kids with issues, kids with fun things going on

that we need to be there for.

We have older parents that are ill,

there's so, so much going on, affordability,

that the concept of the outside influence

on the sales ability, and I know this episode's gonna drive

the point home that says, hey, look,

you may need to care a whole lot more

than you currently are.

And not that you're gonna care and say,

oh, go home and take three weeks off and fix, no.

Is there anything we can do to help you get through your day?

You're maybe having an off day, right?

And the other thing, Rena,

that it's not hard to discover it today.

You have to listen, you have to look, pay,

I love the word, I always say it all the time,

you gotta pay attention to what's going on around you.

And if you are and you're not ignoring it,

Rachel, I'm sure that at your counter,

stuff comes in that's not supposed to be there,

the outside influence.

I always think I'll be mother goose until we get loose.

100%.

I mean, everything happens on a mental level,

or it happens on a personal level.

Coaching is the tool that we give people,

but empowering them is the outcome.

So the way that we do that is we pour into people,

we listen to them, we know that words matter,

not only what we're telling them, but what they tell us.

And we have to really pour into them

by just making sure that we're recognized them as a person

and not just a service advisor.

When you sent the email, Karma, about the topic,

I thought to myself, like,

both myself and Rachel were service advisors.

I thought about all the things that impacted me

when I was an advisor, and sometimes it was,

well, my technician, like a specific one,

is giving me really bad inspections,

and or I have a technician that's having a lot of comebacks.

Also, it could be something personally

that is impacting me, right?

Like, whatever's happening in my personal life.

But I think about, like, why is that advisor

hesitating to sell?

Is it because there's a technician

that isn't doing what they are best at?

And so we talk about the front end

and how what's going on with them,

but do we ever look at our technicians and go,

why aren't your inspections looking like they used to?

Like, what's going on?

Why are you having comebacks without offending them?

Just recently, I was talking to a general manager of a shop,

and she was telling me that one of the technicians,

just like, things just kept happening.

Like, not good things, right?

Inspections weren't good comebacks,

things were happening, he was slow.

She had just like a heart to heart with him.

He found out his dad had cancer.

And so it was impacting the advisor as well

because the advisor is like nervous to give him things

and sees that things aren't working the way that they used to.

So it was the snowball effect.

And when we go out and we find out this is what's going on,

now there's things that we can do to help.

I call that emotional weight.

And when you have emotional weight

and you're asked to carry another 20 pounds into your job

and you notice it, again, I think it takes a great leader

not to have the church and state separation,

but an individual and even an individual at the counter says,

hey, let's go talk, let's do lunch, talk to me.

Think about an individual who's carrying the weight

of his dad has cancer, there may be a divorce,

children get ill, they just need to talk about it.

And we all need to know that it's going on.

And if we know that it's going on,

we're not gonna give this person any less work,

but we're gonna realize that there are some boundaries

that this person can't get over.

I'm not saying that the work will be sloppy,

but the work may not be at the 110% level

that this individual was giving.

And that person just maybe needs a couple of days to regroup.

We have to be like that in today's environment.

Coaching gives us the opportunity to do that.

We call and we're like, hey, we're listening to your calls

and we're looking at ROs and we're seeing KPIs

or whatever it is that are not at their best,

not at their best.

And we start talking and a lot of people

in that private one-on-one,

like we call ourselves like their therapist

a lot of the time we are there.

I know, and please keep along the line,

but you hear the word therapist 40 times a day today.

10 years ago, you never heard it.

Yeah.

And so people will tell us,

because I have this and this going on

and they haven't told anybody at the shop.

And maybe it's because they're proud, too proud.

Maybe it's because they don't,

look, I don't wanna be a problem.

I don't want people to think I can't do my job.

Maybe it's, I don't feel safe telling anybody.

And so they share it with us.

And now we get to see what's going on.

And a lot of the time,

we'll say to whoever we're working with,

do you want me to share this with the people

that need to know,

or do you want me to coach you to tell them what's going on?

And sometimes that's what they need from us,

is like, what do I say?

What do I do?

But we do, we hear that a lot.

And I have had a shop owner say to me before,

I feel like you're spending too much time

fixing their personal problems.

And here's the truth.

I can't grow them professionally

until I grow them personally.

A lot of us are stunted professionally

because we can't get past personal things.

And so we do spend time talking about things

with people personally and probably,

just like understanding, well, where does that come from?

Why are you feeling stressed right now?

Why do you think you stress out when this happens?

And sometimes it goes back to, gosh,

you know, when I was seven,

you know, this or this happened to me.

And we uncover why that person is stunted

and why they're not able to grow professionally.

Let me stop and challenge this thing

about the coach can discover it.

What about the leader of the organization?

I mean, I want this episode to challenge

ownership leadership.

And I know, Rina, thanks for being my coach

and discovering this for me.

Thank you for the advice you're giving me,

but I got this.

Is that how you guys are doing it?

Giving the responsibility to the ownership?

It depends.

I mean, I think Rachel will agree with me.

It depends on the shop owner.

Like we know the ones that we can go to and say,

hey, there's something going on, right?

And we know the ones that we can't say anything

because they're not gonna have any empathy

or sympathy or understanding.

We generally know what we're capable of doing.

And what we're capable of sharing.

Most of the time I feel like it is our responsibility

to I shouldn't hide things from the business owner.

I'll let them know, hey, there's something going on

and I'll let them tell you.

Or just let them tell you, don't say that I said anything.

Maybe now is a good time for you to have a conversation

with them, a private conversation.

What they do with it is up to them.

So you're saying it is my responsibility

and I will share it, but you sometimes don't see resolution.

Yeah.

Wow.

I mean, I think as shop owners or business owners,

we set the stage for our employees.

Calm is contagious, but so is chaos too.

So it's our responsibilities to make sure

that we know what's going on within our business.

Outside influence doesn't just affect the service advisor.

It often drives the performance more than skill alone.

And sales is emotional, but advisors are human first.

And whatever has happened on the front counter

is going to affect the back just as much as it does the front.

So we've got to make sure that the front counter

is on their A game and be ready for whatever comes their way.

Emotional state equals sales performance.

And what's happening outside of work like Rena said,

whether it's family stress, financial pressure,

maybe they're not getting enough sleep, getting older

and we know how valuable that sleep is.

But that directly impacts their confidence,

their communication, their decision making.

And an overwhelmed advisor tends to rush conversations.

They're not building value in that conversation.

They don't have the confidence.

They tend to avoid difficult topics like the price shoppers

are selling out of their own pocket.

But a grounded advisor who is, I'll use a racialism here,

when we have our mind right, we have our grind right.

A grounded advisor slows down, they build value

and they can confidently guide the customer

and our team as well.

Because what that advisor do, if there's one person

in the shop that doesn't have their mental state

where it needs to be, it affects the whole nature

of the shop and our customers.

Mm-hmm, yeah, we're only as strong as our weakest link.

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I love what you said a little bit ago.

I wanna repeat it.

Common chaos is contagious.

It's crazy around here, 724.

Wow, it seems like we're always on the beach

and there's a beautiful sunset every day.

And so you have to make that happen.

You can't wish it, you have to make it happen.

And if you let the chaos continue, shame on you.

This is so interesting, Rachel.

You sent me a great talking point.

Sales is a skill highly tied to emotion.

And then you went on to say

that consistently satisfied and happy with their life.

Of course, if they're not, then it's not true.

And these are the power pieces in my mind

that help people deal with work

on top of the emotions and the problems

that they have going on.

I have to tell you today, with the things that I know

that are going on in just people around me's,

you know, life that's going on

for someone to be at the top of their game some days,

it isn't gonna work.

It's really hard.

And I could attest to the last year and a half

has really been a struggle for me.

And I can tell you, you know, business being up and down

and all of us as business owners experience this,

but I know how it can affect me and my team,

my family, everything.

And my husband can see a big shift in me

when we have a good sales day versus a bad sales day.

You know, language and tone shifts

sometimes without us even realizing it.

And that stress shows up in shorter answers,

us being impatient with ourselves, with our customers.

But all of that comes out,

whether it's in the business or at home,

all of our life affects everything that we do.

I think that, you know, a lot of shop owners

are retired technicians or even retired advisors.

So a lot of shop owners, just business owners in general,

are not retired therapists.

And so I just don't think that everybody knows

what to do when you see somebody

that is clearly in distress.

And I also think that shop owners,

business owners in general are busy.

And so a lot of the time they're not looking

for that person that is stressed.

They don't see it themselves.

And so like I was talking to a shop today

and the shop owner is also the lead technician.

How is a lead technician go and look at everybody's,

like look at their eyes every day.

Hey, how are you? Good morning.

I think that you have to have someone that does that.

So if this isn't your strength,

you should find the person in your business

that it is their strength.

And sometimes it's like some of the shop owners

I work with, it's their wives.

Their wives maybe don't have a big role in the shop.

Maybe they have a huge role.

But a lot of the time I find that they're the ones

that will go kind of do the mom check in, right?

Hey, how are you? How are things?

What's been going on? How is your weekend?

And just see, like we are creatures of habit.

And so when you see that I'm different, I'm off,

maybe for a day, it's not that big of a deal,

but you see it 234 like what is going on?

And like I said, a lot of people don't want to share

with you what's going on

because maybe they don't feel like they can or they should.

But I know that eventually if you do,

if you create the culture in your business, in your shop,

whatever it is to have where you have regular check-ins,

people are going to expect it.

So I think it also is the consistency of your check-ins

that people are expecting them and it doesn't seem weird.

You're just checking in with me because I'm having a bad day.

It's like, no, you check in with me all the time.

So I feel safe talking about what's going on today.

Yeah, I think we've really created a good culture

here in our shop.

I mean, most of my employees will come in after a long weekend

or even the next morning after they've had a rough night.

And it's my therapist chair.

They'll come in here and they'll pour their heart out to me.

And I'll ask them, are you coming in here

because you're looking for solutions?

Or are you coming in here

because you just need to talk to me and get it out?

And sometimes they just need to come in here and talk it out.

And then they feel better and they can go about their day.

But just that extra five minutes

can make a positive impact on the rest of their day.

You know, that's honesty and trust.

That's powerful.

Hey, Rachel, let me tell you about my weekend,

blah, blah.

You're in the therapist's chair.

Isn't that what you said?

The therapist's chair, I love that.

You could probably see in them, maybe not relief,

but the confidence that you know what's going on in their head.

And if they make a left instead of a right

in something that they're doing,

you may wanna catch it, mention it,

but you also know the why behind it.

Yeah, absolutely.

If we know that something's going on in their personal life,

just like our advisors, you know,

if we're listening to a call and we know that they've listened,

or we've heard a bad call,

but then they get on the phone

and they told us their dog just died

or they just got into a car accident.

Well, we're probably not gonna go over that bad call with them.

We're gonna focus on what's going on in their life

because we don't wanna add to what distress

they're experiencing in that moment.

Okay, therapist's chair, I have a question.

Are you there to listen or to give advice or both?

Depending on what they need from us.

And that is one question that I'll always ask my staff.

Are you coming here because you need me to help you through this?

Do you just want me to listen

or you need me to ask a solution?

One of my employees had just come to me about his daughter

and he's like, you know, I said,

are you coming to me asking me for help on this

or do you just need to vent to me?

And he's like, I want your advice on this.

He's like, I trust you.

This is big, this is powerful.

You mentioned something earlier about culture.

I mean, I think this culture comes in so many forms

and there's so many moving parts to get culture right,

but one of them is that your people have to

wanna come to work every day and feel comfortable at it.

Okay, you can bring your baggage,

but let's let it not hurt the business.

When I was thinking about the topic,

like what I kept coming back to is like,

how do we create a culture where it is okay

to share what's going on,

but not make it like a toxic thing

where we don't want it to become the business.

We don't want it to become so big that it overtakes the day,

but recognizing that there's a problem,

discussing it or just listening, whatever it is,

is I think very important.

And what I kept coming back to is how important it is

to have a genuine connection with the people

that you work with.

And I think that that's hard to do, but not impossible.

And I think how you do that is disc assessments,

communication style assessments,

whatever it is you like or believe in, team building,

like, and that could look like

we're gonna make dream dwarfs together.

It could mean we're gonna go do go carts together.

Like, it doesn't have to be the boss that comes to you.

It could be one of your coworkers

because you guys are close

and you recognize that that person isn't themselves.

And so maybe I don't have that close of a relationship

with somebody, but I know that someone else does.

I might just cue them like,

hey, do you mind going and checking in with so-and-so

and to see if everything's okay?

They might do that on their own,

but I think it definitely comes from the top

that we create a culture where we have each other's back.

We know it's okay to talk.

We could do another episode just about culture.

We could do 50 episodes about culture, but you're right.

This is creating a certain culture.

One of the things that I just heard

and I wrote down the word confidential.

And in my mind, trust honesty, confidential,

I should have said that a few minutes ago

because there are some people that want to tell you,

but they just don't want anyone else to know.

And it's very private, it's very personal

because to your point about disc

and the communication styles of people,

some people don't want to get there.

They carry the burden inside of them

and it affects their daily life.

It affects them at home, socially at work.

And if they tell you and it ever gets out

because you breach the confidentiality,

you lost that person.

It's absolutely over.

And you can't be excited to want to tell somebody else

because you found out what the problem was.

Ooh, I can't wait.

No, it's totally wrong.

You have to grow some calluses

on being able to keep confidentiality inside.

I think that's, it's huge.

So you got a lot of Leansioni examples

that I know you wanted to bring up.

Yes, I do.

Somebody once said to me.

I've read his books, they're great stuff.

He is fantastic.

And one person once said to me,

you know, Rina, you talk about him so much,

he's your Silver Fox.

I love what he has to say.

One of the things specifically when it comes to this topic

that I felt was really important is that he said,

you know, we're not supposed to be someone's therapist,

but we need to recognize that there's a problem

because when people feel that they aren't important,

that they aren't seen, heard,

now they feel unknown and unseen

and they don't feel like they're part of your team.

And so I'm gonna give you an example.

I did an in-shop visit.

This was several years ago.

And I was there on a Friday and then I was there on Monday.

And on Friday, one of the technicians went home early

because he was gonna go to urgent care

because he like slammed his hand

in between like something in a transmission.

He was replacing a transmission.

So he left, Monday morning he came in,

I noticed that he was really quiet,

maybe even a little grumpy and I asked the advisors,

I was like, hey, what's going on with George?

And they were like, I don't know, he's normally fine.

I mean, I don't know.

So I went over and I checked on him and I asked him,

I was like, hey, how are you?

How's your weekend?

How are you?

And he just held up his hand and it was in a bandage.

And I said, oh yeah, I forgot about your hand, how is it?

And he goes, everybody forgot about my hand today.

No one came to ask me how my hand was.

That bothered him.

It bothered him that no one came to check on him.

You know what I think?

I think of the word roll call.

It's conceptually, right?

On a daily basis, we do not, it's not like in the army,

you know, Rita Bob here, Rachel, Spencer here, it's not that.

The roll call could be just an act and an action

of being there when someone comes in the door

or if we're starting up and we don't want to have a crazy day

but let's do the tour, the roll call tour.

And at that point in time, how's your hand?

How's your hand?

What's going on?

You know, how long were you in the emergency room?

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Those are empathy discussion points with people.

And if he is an individual who likes to more talk with vehicles

and not people, then you know he's not going to go out

and come in here and says, hey guys, I broke three fingers

but he's just gonna come in and be himself

and wait on you to make that recognition.

That's a great point, Rita.

I have a question.

So let me first say that I feel like a lot of shop owners

are possibly afraid to venture into the truth.

How are you doing that question?

Because they're afraid of what happens when I open the door

and then it's just an absolute flood.

So I'm asking you, Rachel, because I don't know the answer.

How do you keep it so that the problem doesn't become

like a focal point where it just stays as

like a healthy conversation and you don't allow it

to become a toxic part of the shop?

I think just being there for them, you know,

leading with stability, being calm and consistent

and to control what those conversations,

conversations don't just come from what we know.

They come from how we show up for our employees

and how we show up is influenced by everything that we do.

So just leaving our door open

and doing those morning check-ins with them,

asking them how they're doing

and just being intentional and letting them know

that we're there to support them.

You know, if something's going on in your life,

what can I do to support you

and just asking that question some of the times?

And sometimes it's just them talking through it.

I haven't had any big issues where, you know,

somebody's had something so major going on in their life

that it has affected their daily work.

You know, I've seen it day in and day out

where something may be going on

and they put a wrong ticket on a part or something like that.

I'm like, hey, let's just slow down a little bit.

I know you've got stuff going on within your life,

but you know, maybe, you know, you need to go take,

you know, have a break and go get a drink

or something and come back and reset.

And that's one thing that's really important for us

as a shop is we close down an hour for lunch every day.

And I think that that is important

for their emotional health

because we've got four hours here

and then we go reset during lunch

and then we come back.

And so even if our morning was bad,

we get an hour break where we can reset our mindset

and come back with a new perspective.

What would you do though if you had somebody

that if you opened the door

and it just came pouring out

and it came pouring out every day?

Because I have that where I have coaching clients

where like every time I call them, it's like, yeah, you know,

there's always a problem, there's always something wrong.

It's very involved.

Everything is very involved

with what's going on with their life.

Like what do you do with that person?

Van, I just think that you have to concentrate

on what you can do in your life.

There's only certain aspects that we can control

and there's certain things that we can't

and we've got to focus on that positivity.

And we help them through that

by focusing on what's going right and not what's going wrong.

So we try and shift their mindset by doing that.

There was a recent study where a scientist did a study,

white rice and black rice.

So what he did is he had two jars of rice.

The white rice, he was pouring positivity to

and just saying, you know, you're beautiful,

you're amazing, you work hard.

The other one, he fed negativity into it

and he was saying, you're ugly, you do a bad job,

you're awful, that rice started to turn black.

So there's scientific studies behind that.

So a little phrase within my family

is if something's going wrong or we've got negativity,

we say white rice.

So I think that's really important

that we pour into our people and just show them

what they have to be thankful for,

what they have grateful to be grateful for

instead of focusing on the negatives.

I see what you're saying, don't feed into it.

You have to know where the boundary, where that line is.

And I think that that can be difficult to know

how far do you go.

I know like as a coach, sometimes I just have to say,

hey, we're gonna take 10 minutes today

to just do our weekly check-in

and then I want to do this and

and I have to take more control of,

I'm willing to listen,

but I'm only gonna let you have this amount of time.

Then we're gonna move on to the next thing.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, we've got to be able to control that conversation

because even though we do want to pour into our people,

we also have a task to do,

which is empowering them through the coaching.

Pour into our people, I love that.

I was recently talking to a shop owner,

a multi-shop operation and I says,

how often do you get out into the field?

Eight stores, okay?

He goes, I make it a goal to visit two stores a week.

So I see all of my people at least monthly

and I'm the cheerleader for them.

And of course we have managed store managers

and general managers.

And he says, I care about my people

in the highest, highest degree.

And when I started to think about that,

and even if it was a single operation,

no matter general manager or owner in the facility,

you know, you can say things like,

what's going on?

What's happening?

How's the family?

I wrote these down.

Any plans this weekend?

You're looking good today.

What's going on?

You comb your hair?

Nice organized workspace.

When you get in your next haircut,

it goes to my whole grooming thing.

And hey, I heard about that you did

a really great inspection the other day.

You found some real big problems for a vehicle

that wasn't safe for our client.

You just don't have to say,

hey, Charlie, how you doing?

What's going on?

Did you ever solve your issue?

You find out that dad has cancer as an example

and you say, hey, how's your dad doing?

These are the empathy kind of things

that people need to know you care about

and that you're paying attention to them.

Well, I think so much as owners and coaches

and everything, we get so stuck on the KPI sometimes

and we forget about the person.

We focus on the negative instead of focusing on the positive

instead of going up front and saying, man,

that was an amazing sale or that was an amazing call.

You did a great job that we have to pour more positivity

into them than we do negativity.

That positivity is a choice.

We've got to be able to control that

with our conversations a lot of the time.

I just talked to a service advisor yesterday

and I said, oh, well, how was your guys this month?

How did it?

And she said, well, we didn't meet our goal,

but the shop owner, I thought that he was gonna have

like something negative to say.

He came in and he was like, yeah,

but did you guys see your this and your this?

And he pointed out the positive things

and she said she was surprised at that

because most of the time it's the manager

that reports on those things and he is very negative.

He does not look at the wins, he looks at the losses

and so I think you're right.

I think like it's like looking for the wins.

And I also, I made a note that learning how people

like to communicate, that can be disk, right?

But one thing that I do when I'm working with technicians

is I always like to ask them what their preferred method

of communication is.

So just like we ask our customers,

do you ask your technicians?

Do you prefer for me to text you, email you?

Do you want me to come out and talk to you?

And the most interesting thing is,

is it's always the really quiet technicians

that stick to themselves that want you to come talk to them.

Always.

It is so weird.

You would think that they're the ones

that want you to communicate virtually,

but they always want you to come out

and have a conversation.

The whole person at work, which is the Lencioni,

I believe it was his book, the whole person at work.

I'm really loving this episode.

I'm so glad you brought this to us.

And I think this could be a personal life changing episode

that people can listen to a couple of times

and share it with people.

But I started to think about the owner driving to work

and the thoughts that are going through their mind

about what's going on at home, blah, blah, blah.

I've got to solve this, got to make this phone call.

Yesterday it was like this.

And then you're driving home saying,

ugh, trust me, every day there's things,

positive, negative issues that are going on.

And as an owner, and I'm speaking to owners right now,

or leaders, managers, your people

are doing the same damn thing.

They're coming to work with either baggage or positivity

because we all don't live in the world of negativity.

I don't believe that.

I mean, maybe there are some people

that just can't climb out of a hole.

But for the most part, we do have a,

let's find that positivity when it comes up

by going around and seeing our people.

And maybe my job is to fluffing up

or kind of creating the sunshine

that goes on inside the business.

By having people care minute one of the start of the day.

You know, 805, rah, rah.

We did great numbers yesterday, great inspections.

Customers were thrilled and happy.

We got a brand new client yesterday.

Thank you for all the great things that you're doing.

Now, think about the client advisors

that are on our counters.

If there's a leader there,

that's their responsibility for their team,

customer service people and the owner.

I love your whole point.

This to me was an episode that dove heavily into culture.

I think that to bounce off your point,

we end up like just living in our little world here

that we have a phone call to make,

oh my gosh, I forgot to pay that bill.

Oh, I need to call so-and-so.

And we look past that we have a team of people

that are looking to us to see what our mood is today.

And they are going to emulate us.

Then also, I think to myself, Kerm,

how easy is it when you're having a good day, good week,

good month to have those conversations about rah-rah,

is harder to have those conversations

when you're not having a good day, good week, good month.

And it's harder to go find the positivity.

And a lot of the times we're like,

well, I need to let everybody know

that we're not doing well.

Either you're gonna have a shit day

because the leader's in a shit mood or has an attitude

or you're gonna have a wonderful, heavy duty, sunny day.

But your point is well taken about doom and gloom.

Oh, maybe we didn't meet our numbers yesterday,

but there could very well be some positivity in everything.

Listen, we didn't hit it, but look, guys,

we have another day to get through it

and we had one little misstep yesterday.

I know it won't happen again today.

There's a lot of ways to get people excited

about launching the day.

Yeah, I think words change people.

Tone changes our trust with them,

whether they want to come to us or not.

Energy really changes the outcome.

So if we're having a slow day,

I wanna make sure that I'm boosting my team up.

Like, hey, let's put our slow day action plan in place.

They're coming, we gotta get ready for it.

Let's prime this pump.

But just be ready at all times

and really the power of positivity is amazing.

But if we spread that negativity, oh my gosh, we're slow.

This is happening, you didn't sell this ticket.

That negativity is contagious to the entire team.

Well, I'm gonna call that your last word.

Power of positivity, Rachel.

The power of positivity.

Rina, one final word

and we're gonna thank you both for being here.

And I'm telling you, we could go on for hours.

I just love these little tight little 40 minute,

change people's lives episodes.

Final word, Rina.

Employees don't leave their personal lives at home.

And so it is important to recognize that

and either recognize them

or to stop it before it becomes something bigger.

Great story, great stuff here today.

Rina Renabon, CEO, coaching consultant

from Empowered Advisor and Rachel Spencer

from Spencer's Auto Repair in Chrome, Texas

and a coach with Rina's Empowered Advisor.

This was a great episode.

Thank you, Outside Influence on Sales Ability.

Powerful stuff, thanks guys.

Thanks for being on board to listen and learn

from the Premier Automotive Repair Business Podcast,

Remarkable Results Radio.

Get your episodic education on the ARPN listening app

at AutomotiveRepairPodcastNetwork.com.

Also enjoy the podcast on our Carm Capriato YouTube channel.

Carm is all for advancing the professional

automotive service industry, until next time.

About this episode

Outside stress shows up in the shop and quietly reshapes sales, inspections, and customer conversations. The hosts connect performance to emotion—“Emotional state equals sales performance”—and explain how leaders protect results by coaching, reviewing calls/ROs/KPIs, and setting a calm culture where check-ins and confidentiality matter. They also share practical communication guidance for handling sensitive issues without turning them toxic. Along the way, the show promotes shop-support tools like NapaTrax and loyalty/CRM platforms, plus short daily training and retention metrics.

roll call transmission

Chevrolet Trax

Original notes

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, Today's Class, KUKUI, and Pit Crew Loyalty Watch Full Video Episode Are you tired of telling your staff to “leave their problems at the door”? The reality is, what happens outside the shop often follows employees into the bays, the service counter, and every customer interaction throughout the day. Financial pressure, family struggles, burnout, stress, and emotional fatigue all impact confidence, communication, productivity, and sales performance, whether leaders recognize it or not.

In this insightful episode, Rena Rennebohm, CEO of Empowered Advisor, and service advisor coach and shop owner Rachel Spencer, challenge the old-school mindset of “leave your problems at the door” and explore what modern leadership really looks like in high-performing repair shops.

The strongest shops aren’t built only on process and productivity; they’re built on leaders who understand people.

What You’ll Learn

How personal stress impacts sales performance and customer communication
Why technician morale directly affects advisor confidence and trust
The connection between emotional stability and shop productivity
How great leaders identify performance struggles before KPIs decline
Why empathy and accountability must work together
The importance of daily check-ins and emotional awareness
How negativity spreads through shop culture and how leaders can stop it
Why “soft skills” have become essential leadership skills in auto repair

When employees feel supported, understood, and valued, communication improves, confidence grows, and performance follows. This episode offers practical insights for shop owners and managers who want to protect team performance, strengthen culture, and lead more effectively in today’s high-pressure auto repair environment.

Rena Rennebohm, CEO and Creator of Empowered Advisor. Rena’s previous episodes HERE. Rachel Spencer, Spencer’s Auto Repair, Krum, TX. Rachel's previous episodes HERE Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Thanks to our Partner, KUKUI Stop juggling multiple marketing tools. KUKUI’s integrated platform delivers 4x better website conversions, automated follow-up, and real-time ROI tracking. Get industry-leading customer support with KUKUI at https://www.kukui.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Pit Crew...

Remarkable Results Radio Podcast

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